Farhad Manjoo’s Favorite Slate Story

The New York Times’ technology columnist remembers a classic #slatepitch.

Since our founding in 1996 (1996!), Slate has published tens of thousands of articles. We’ve asked a group of former Slatesters to direct you to pieces they remember fondly from their time at the magazine.

It’s hilarious, it’s right on, it’s contrarian in the best Slate tradition, and conceptually, it’s both obvious and surprising: Even though everyone hates being roped in to expensive, impersonal birthday dinners, nobody had made that point until John did.

Farhad Manjoo is a technology columnist for the New York Times and the author of True Enough.